MIT unveils graphene chip, could lead to 1,000 Gigahertz processors

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A one-atom-thick honeycomb lattice of carbon, graphene was first identified in 2004, and late last year IBM demoed a 26GHz graphene-based transistor that hinted at a silicon-free future of processing.

26GHz is impressive, but MIT has just curbed IBM’s accomplishment, rendering it toothless: they have announced an experimental graphene chip which they claim could result in practical systems in the 500 to 1,000 gigahertz range.

The experimental chip is basically a frequency multiplier, which takes incoming electrical signals of a given frequency, like clock speed; and produces an output that is a multiple of that frequency. MIT’s graphene chip can double the frequency of an electromagnetic signal.

What’s amazing about the graphene chip isn’t just its potential for incredibly fast computers. Existing frequency multipliers are notoriously noisy: they require filtering and consumer large power. MIT’s new graphene system is just a single transistor on the other hand and is highly efficient.

“In electronics, we’re always trying to increase the frequency,” says MIT’s Tomas Polacios, an assistant professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. “It’s very difficult to generate high frequencies about four or five gigahertz.” But the graphene chip’s potential is one hundred to two hundred times higher.

“Graphene will play a key role in future electronics,” says Palacios. But don’t expect to see Intel Graphene inside stickers on your laptops anytime soon: the technology to grow wafers of graphene directly is still depressingly far off.